Friday, October 16th

Cape May, NJ

When I woke this morning I decided to take a day rest. The wind was blowing fiercely from the NW, and it's well known that this means the Delaware Bay is awful. I read about it many times, and would hear about it again the next day. I went back to my bunk and chilled for another hour, then made breakfast and peeked out. What the hell was that boat next to me?

It's hard to see in this photo, but the owner even put topsails on the mast. Pity I didn't meet him in person.

I decided to use a lull in the strong winds and row to land, with the tide out there had appeared a smallish bit of sandy beach right behind the Caprice. I pulled the dinghy on land and asked a nearby worker if it was OK to leave it there. He told me it was NOT OK - in fact it wasn't OK for ME to be there either because this area also belongs to the Coast Guard Training facility. I quickly relaunched the dinghy and returned to the Caprice before the CG would arrest me. Since I couldn't row very far with the dinghy my planned excursion came to nothing.

I kept discussing with John from Aquinna whether to wait in Cape May for better weather to go up the Delaware, or go down the coast 'outside'. I decided to wait for the morning to see how it looked and how I felt.